Jon Huntsman Sr.

Jon Meade Huntsman Sr. (21 June 1937-) was an American businessman and philanthropist who founded and led Huntsman Corporation, a global manufacturer and marketer of specialty chemicals. He was also a notable leader of the Republican Party in the American West, and his son Jon Huntsman Jr. served as the Republican governor of Utah from 2005 to 2009.

Biography
Jon Meade Huntsman Sr. was born in Blackfoot, Idaho on 21 June 1937, and his family moved to Palo Alto, California in 1950. After graduating from Stanford University, Huntsman would become Superintendent of Schools in the Palo Alto school district. He later graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1959, and he served in the US Navy from 1959 to 1961. Huntsman married the daughter of LDS Church apostle David B. Haight, and they had a son, Jon Huntsman Jr., who would follow in his father's footsteps as a prominent Mormon Republican.

During the 1960s, Huntsman rose in the ranks of the Dolco Packaging Corporation, and he left Dolco in 1970 to form Huntsman Container Corporation. Plants were constructed in Fullerton, California in 1970 and Troy, Ohio in 1972, and his plastics and petrochemical pursuits made him a wealthy man. In 1982, he formed the Huntsman Chemical Corporation in Salt Lake City, Utah, and he grew the business into a multibillion-dollar company.

Huntsman was active in Republican politics in the American West, serving as Associate Administrator of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare under Richard Nixon, Special Assistant and Staff Secretary to President Nixon, chairman of the Western States Republican Leaders in 1977, Republican Party of Utah national committeeman from 1976 to 1980, and the chairman for Utah in Ronald Reagan's campaign during the United States presidential election, 1984 and George H.W. Bush's campaigns in 1988 and 1992. He was more of a social conservative than his son, who became Governor of Utah.